I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 1227 Railways are the lifeblood

After one hour.

The Minister of Transport's eyes practically lit up when he heard that he had received 27,000 free laborers, all of whom were able-bodied and fit.

“That’s wonderful, Your Highness!” He quickly calculated in his mind and said, “The construction progress of the Nancy Railway will be accelerated by about 30%, and the construction cost will be reduced by 350 million francs!”

"Only 350 million?" Joseph said with some regret. "I thought we could save more."

Tresagae hurriedly explained, “Your Highness, in reality, we can only deploy no more than 9 prisoners of war on the Nancy line. As you know, the construction site is only so big, and it would be difficult to make good use of more people.”

"Moreover, some jobs that require high technical skills are not suitable for the Russians."

"At the same time, managing so many people also requires a lot of expenses. Even if we don't pay them wages, we still need to feed them."

In fact, this is a huge win for France, as it has accelerated the construction speed while reducing expenditures.

Joseph frowned. There were still 18,000 prisoners of war left. It seemed the only option was to send them to Tripoli to grow potatoes.

It's such a waste to have such a strong and capable worker.

Tresagae glanced at the Crown Prince's expression and hesitated before saying, "Your Highness, I know that the country is currently focused on the war..."

"But I think that perhaps the money saved could be used to build the railway from Luxembourg to Verdun. Oh, of course, that would require a little more funding."

“You see, it’s only about 50 kilometers from Luxembourg to Verdun. If we can connect them by rail, it will reduce the cost of obtaining high-quality steel in the Nancy industrial area by a quarter, and allow a large amount of coal from Lorraine to be transported to Luxembourg. At the same time, this project will make better use of that free labor.”

Joseph nodded slightly upon hearing this.

This railway line is indeed very significant. Although Lorraine has large iron ore mines, they produce low-grade limonite, so in the past two years Nancy has begun to purchase large quantities of high-quality iron ore from Luxembourg.

At the same time, Luxembourg itself has few coal mines. In recent years, with the continuous development of the coal and iron industry in the Walloon region, the operating rate of Luxembourg's iron smelters has been decreasing, and it is almost becoming an iron ore exporter.

With railways, coal from Lorraine could be transported to Luxembourg at a lower cost, helping these ironworks to revitalize.

He looked at Tresagae: "So how much more money needs to be invested?"

"About 300 million francs, Your Highness."

Joseph sighed. France's general mobilization was very successful. In just over a month, about 12 new soldiers had been recruited, even though the southern provinces were slower to act and the new recruit data had not yet been collected.

However, with the large influx of new recruits, military spending has also increased rapidly. Many military uniforms are produced with funds advanced by textile factories.

He's really not sure if the Ministry of Finance can scrape together 300 million yuan in spare cash.

Finance Minister Godan happened to be at Versailles Palace at that moment, and was quickly led by Emmanuel to the Dauphin's drawing room.

Joseph briefly explained the construction of the Luxembourg-Verdun railway line to Godan, then said, "This will require an additional 300 million francs. If finances are tight, you can plan to issue a third round of war bonds..."

“There is no need to issue national bonds, Your Highness,” Godan said immediately. “In fact, I am discussing the latest loan agreement with the French Reserve Bank, and we can temporarily increase the loan amount by 300 million francs.”

"The French Reserve Bank?" Joseph asked, somewhat puzzled. "They still have funds?"

He was well aware that the French Reserve Bank had already essentially drained its funds when France had just begun preparing for war.

Godan smiled and nodded. "Yes, Your Highness. Lately, the public's enthusiasm for saving has been very high. The French Reserve Bank saw an increase of 1800 million francs in deposits within a month. Mr. Lafitte believes that at least 1 million francs of this could be used for government loans. And the amount of deposits is still rising."

Joseph certainly hadn't expected that the "inviolability of citizens' property" would have such an effect.

In fact, ever since John Law caused the "Mississippi Bubble," the French public, especially the older generation, has been wary of French banks.

This has led to the French still having the habit of holding cash in their hands, even though 78 years have passed since the incident.

But now that there is clear legal protection, people naturally still want to earn bank interest. In fact, if many people hadn't bought government bonds before, this wave of saving would have been even more intense.

Ultimately, the underlying logic of finance is always confidence.

Upon hearing that the Ministry of Finance had just received a loan of tens of millions of francs, Theresa Gué's mind immediately began to wander again. He rubbed his hands together and smiled, saying, "Your Highness, if we could allocate a little more funding, we could extend the railway line to Trier. It's less than 40 kilometers from Luxembourg, and the terrain is flat..."

Joseph said irritably, "Let's plan the Verdun to Luxembourg section first, and we can talk about the rest later."

In fact, connecting Trier by rail is also of great significance to France. Trier is a transportation hub in the Rhineland, and building the railway there is equivalent to revitalizing the entire Rhineland's economy.

Furthermore, if France were to send troops to the Rhineland via rail, the efficiency would be significantly improved compared to before.

This also shows that Transport Minister Tressac has carefully studied France's strategic layout.

However, France is currently engaged in a national war and simply does not have the funds to launch any more large-scale construction projects.

Shortly after Tresagay and Godan left, Talleyrand arrived in haste.

“Your Highness,” the Foreign Minister said, bowing with his hand on his chest, “news has just arrived from Milan that the Mediterranean Security Organization meeting did not pass the proposal to split Sardinia.”

Joseph frowned immediately: "What's going on?"

Talleyrand quickly replied, "The Milan negotiators insist that the area from Aosta to Bryzon should be ceded to our country. Currently, the security organization is revising the proposal."

Joseph then smiled. The Milanese were quite sensible.

Aosta is a small place, and most of it is in the Alps, with only the town of Bryçon at the foot of the mountains.

It's estimated that these small northern Italian countries felt uneasy about letting France eat Sardinia alone without even touching it, so they forced a piece onto France as well.

He nodded: "Then let's do it this way and finish the voting as soon as possible."

Even a small effort is still an effort, and besides, at least half the population of the Aosta region speaks French, so integration shouldn't be too difficult.

Talleyrand continued, "In addition, there is the issue of war reparations from Sardinia."

Sardinia hopes the reparations amount will not exceed ten million francs.

"Sardines has 700 million francs in deposits and investments in Milan and Genoa. Both countries have indicated that they can transfer these funds directly to our country."

Joseph's eyes lit up; it seemed the railway to Trier could begin construction.

(End of this chapter)